worried about my engine

bankz5152 said:

Is the smoke black? If so would indicate an inbalance of fuel/air

In the colder weather mine has been a bit smokey on start up recently once its properly warm its fine.

Its worth checking!

Click to expand...

I agree I am praying it's is something easy to fix I don't have facilities to work inside and it's bloody freezing.

I once spent some time setting up my turbo waste gate using a gauge plugged into the system, the pipe from the intercooler blew off going up a hill, the engine lost most of its power and it blew out clouds of black smoke.
At the moment the smoke looks very dark grey.
I plan to change the injector washers and I have just ordered an bore camera off fleebay to take a look in the cylinders while the injectors are out.
Going to anneal the new washers and take time to seat them very carefully.

If the smoke is only from cold start then it goes away it can be caused by non working glow plugs

No it was about 1 mile down the road when I hit the throttle

If it was cold outside 1 mile might be irrelevant cos the smoke can persist untill the coolant temp reaches 20*C as that's the point when the glow plug's post-heat operation stops... whats's missed about many owners is that the glow plugs are not there only to help starting but to improve combustion from cold after the engine was started too.... i made a test once and they were on for about 5 minutes after the engine was started

sierrafery said:

If it was cold outside 1 mile might be irrelevant cos the smoke can persist untill the coolant temp reaches 20*C as that's the point when the glow plug's post-heat operation stops... whats's missed about many owners is that the glow plugs are not there only to help starting but to improve combustion from cold after the engine was started too.... i made a test once and they were on for about 5 minutes after the engine was started

Click to expand...

That is interesting and certainly worth following up on.
I changed the plugs a while ago but may be they are duff, starting is suddenly poor while it used to fire up on one key turn, but I also hear the dreaded pump whine when I put the ignition on, if I run the purge then it starts with a big puff of smoke so I imagined that the purge cycle puts some diesel past the injector seals.
One thing I will look at this year is finding a small check valve and fitting it into the filter head, i no longer trust the little red rubber one and i think this could be a worthwhile mod for TD5 fuel systems.

Maybe like this https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/372562401278

raywin said:

That is interesting and certainly worth following up on.
I changed the plugs a while ago but may be they are duff, starting is suddenly poor while it used to fire up on one key turn, but I also hear the dreaded pump whine when I put the ignition on, if I run the purge then it starts with a big puff of smoke so I imagined that the purge cycle puts some diesel past the injector seals.
One thing I will look at this year is finding a small check valve and fitting it into the filter head, i no longer trust the little red rubber one and i think this could be a worthwhile mod for TD5 fuel systems.

Maybe like this https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/372562401278

Click to expand...

youd be better off fixing the whine and change air bleed valve at the same time the one way valve isnt necessary

sierrafery said:

If it was cold outside 1 mile might be irrelevant cos the smoke can persist untill the coolant temp reaches 20*C as that's the point when the glow plug's post-heat operation stops... whats's missed about many owners is that the glow plugs are not there only to help starting but to improve combustion from cold after the engine was started too.... i made a test once and they were on for about 5 minutes after the engine was started

Click to expand...

You can watch the nanocom or Hawkeye on a cold start, that tells you how long the glow plugs are operating, sometimes a suprisingly long time

jamesmartin said:

youd be better off fixing the whine and change air bleed valve at the same time the one way valve isnt necessary

Click to expand...

Just ordered one James.
All I need is some dry weather and I am going to blitz it,.
Saw this on there too never seen them before so thought I would order them anyway it had one on originally.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/192379523185

raywin said:

Just ordered one James.
All I need is some dry weather and I am going to blitz it,.
Saw this on there too never seen them before so thought I would order them anyway it had one on originally.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com.au/ulk/itm/192379523185

Click to expand...

For future reference, next time you use a fuel cleaner additive, try cataclean. My old D2 failed miserably on emissions at a reading of 8.4m-1, the limit being 3.0. Stuck a bottle of that in and it passed at 0.14m-1

Thanks Bob i will look at that I have always thought I may have an injector problem, when I bought it it had one of those clip on performance chips which I took off, had the usual starting issues in the past i changed fuel pressure regulator, fuel air bleed valve, I ejector washers, etc. It has been running fine for a while but it certainly needs something now, I will put the nanocom on it to see if the cylinder balance is ok, I might look for a second had injector to swap a bad one out, but it's a lottery buying one from tbay.

landowner said:

I bow to your superior knowledge sir

Click to expand...

My knowledge is not that good, remember I drive a defender.

I’ve got 5 green tops you are welcome to try out? Not sure on there condition though so could be far to risky

Discodevon said:

I’ve got 5 green tops you are welcome to try out? Not sure on there condition though so could be far to risky

Click to expand...

That's very kind I would like to try that, would you be interested in selling a couple of them if they are OK?
I have a feeling that I might have one or two iffy ones looking at my exhaust pipe it is heavy with soot so something must be wrong.

sierrafery said:

Did you respect the dosage of that stuff so less than 100ml in a full tank?

Click to expand...

the correct dosage can also be very corrosive if left in the system to long regardless of the size of the tank

for example if the engine is parked up while your laying in bed of at work etc this correct dasage is still laying with in the fuel system and injectors

unless one is planning to use up all the 75 litres of fuel in a day or 2 this all depends on the current status of your fuel system

You are welcome to try them ray! Just let me know as and when

raywin said:

I agree I am praying it's is something easy to fix I don't have facilities to work inside and it's bloody freezing.

I once spent some time setting up my turbo waste gate using a gauge plugged into the system, the pipe from the intercooler blew off going up a hill, the engine lost most of its power and it blew out clouds of black smoke.
At the moment the smoke looks very dark grey.
I plan to change the injector washers and I have just ordered an bore camera off fleebay to take a look in the cylinders while the injectors are out.
Going to anneal the new washers and take time to seat them very carefully.

Click to expand...

Do you still have an EGR ?

tom1979 said:

Do you still have an EGR ?

Click to expand...

Yes I have one, I will try unluging it as one of the checks.

I need to do these things carefully, to try and make sure I can identify the real problem, its frustrating if you change three or four things and it works, but you dont know which one was the real cure.
I intend to check the fuel filter see if its all OK, then I will take out the injectors and at the same time inspect the internals of the cylinders with the borescope I ordered, if any of them are more sooty than the others then I will suspect the injectors are faulty, at this point It would be good to take the kind offer of Discodevon and try some different ones on any bad cylinders, at the same time.
I can see if changing the seals will kill the pump whine if so I have ordered new air bleed valve and nonreturn valves for the filter head and I will swap them over hopefully the fuel system will be in decent order then, if it still whining then I need to get to the root of that, I will also put the Nanocom on it and see if the cylinder balance is steady or if there is an obvious fault.
I also need to look at the Fuel pressure regulator and try unpluging the MAF sensor and give it a run.
At the moment I am trying to avoid using it completly as I am a bit worried about the smoke and the overrun when I lift off the throttle I have heard that a leaky injector can cause damage even starting to melt the top of the piston if not sorted out.

Ray I’m like you and wouldn’t risk driving it for a moment... just a quick question though while idling and warm if you unscrew the oil filler cap is there much blow by?

Just decided to try a short run with Nanocom, Very strange readings for the cylinder balance


Cylinders 3, 4 have a flat line stuck up on the top of the graph cylinder 2 is stuck on the bottom of the graph cylinder 1 has some small variation cylinder 5 looks normal
Now here is an old graph I made some time ago
All cylinders have variation in the balance readings

Discodevon said:

Ray I’m like you and wouldn’t risk driving it for a moment... just a quick question though while idling and warm if you unscrew the oil filler cap is there much blow by?

Click to expand...

Just nipped back out and tried that, almost zero blow by on tickover
Oil level is fine and oil very clean
Checked air flow readings (MAF) and manifold pressore (Turbo) from todays run ( about two miles up and down a couple of hils)